Evaluating the psychometrics of the SSIS SEL in a socio-economically diverse sample

The increasing interest in implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions within schools calls for more reliable and valid assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of SEL programs. We investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Skills Improvement System – Social-Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL) with a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse grade 3 students in Ontario, Canada (n = 427). The SSIS SEL is an age-normed measure used for the evaluation of interventions and prevention initiatives. Data collected included both teacher-report and student self-report measures. The factor structure proposed by the scale developers was not replicated using this smaller single grade sample. However, the study demonstrates evidence of good construct and convergent validity supporting the novel factor structure. Results from this study suggest that more research on the SSIS SEL's application in real-world intervention research programs is needed.     

Beyond Spatial Models: A New Perspective on American Operational Ideology Using Latent Class Analysis

Analyses of operational ideology—the pattern of correlations between different political attitudes—in the American public generally assume “spatial” models of ideology. Using Latent Class Analysis, we relax many of these assumptions by treating operational ideology as a latent categorical variable and analyze the changing structure of American operational ideology between 2004 and 2020. We find that some Americans during this period held consistently liberal or conservative views and were well sorted into the “correct” political parties. For other Americans, however, we observe complex and shifting relationships between partisanship and economic, moral, and racial attitudes. We find that Racial Justice Communitarians consistently prefer to identify as Democrats, while Nativist Communitarians and Libertarians both tended to identify with whatever party won the most recent presidential election. Future studies of operational ideology should be wary of simplifying assumptions that obscure important dynamics in American politics.     

INCLUDING ENGINEERING IN OPERATIONS STRATEGY

Today's markets are characterized by time and product quality-based competition. Companies must compete through their ability to manage the whole cycle of product realization and delivery, from the initial concept through to delivery and support at the customer. They must do this through managing an integrated company, not a set of separate functions. This paper addresses the issue of how companies should develop operations strategies for engineering and manufacturing combined. It uses field research into 15 engineering companies to develop the concept of the manufacturing system mission, and proposes strategic choices for manufacturing, engineering and linked functions.     

Unpaid labour and territorial extraction in digital value networks

Production in knowledge and data-intensive industries is powered by work that can, in theory, be done from anywhere, via cloudwork platforms. Cloudwork platforms govern data value chains in distinct ways to concentrate power and extract value at the global scale. We argue that unpaid labour is a systemic mechanism of accumulation in these digital value networks. In this paper we demonstrate how it is tied to platform business models and facilitated by elements of platform governance including monopsony power, a high degree of spatial flexibility in sourcing labour, regulatory unaccountability and digital enclosure. We draw on a survey of 699 workers on 14 platforms in 74 countries to show that unpaid labour is an engine of South–North value extraction, and workers in the global South perform more unpaid labour than counterparts in the global North. Our findings have important ramifications our understanding of the changing international division of labour and platform capitalism.     

Interface Style and Training Task Difficulty as Determinants of Effective Computer-Assisted Knowledge Transfer*

The transfer of expert knowledge to novices is one means of improving decision quality. Research needs to identify (1) the knowledge to be transferred to novices, and (2) the best method for transferring that knowledge. Studies that compare the judgment behavior of experienced and novice auditors address the first issue. The present study addresses the second issue in the context of using a computer-assisted training (CAT) program. CAT was selected for study because of evidence that it can both improve the effectiveness and reduce the costs of training. An experiment was conducted in which two factors were manipulated: (1) the design of the human-computer interface of the CAT program, and (2) the content of training tasks. The judgment of interest involved causal reasoning about the relationships between various internal control procedures and possible errors. The results indicate that alternative styles of interaction with a CAT program differ in terms of learning effectiveness. In addition, there was also evidence that training task content affected learning.